Ubisoft taps the power of the next-gen to make constant bullet barrages beautiful. by Lincoln Stanley

One of the most satisfying titles of the past year was Black. Although only released on current-gen consoles, it showed was fully-destructible environments in a game could mean for gameplay. Players were able to bring buildings, silos, and more down on the heads of their enemies. This type of shoot everything and hope for the best kind of game has yet to be done on next-gen consoles. All that looks to change with the impending release of Killing Day for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Published by Ubisoft and developed by an as-of-now unannounced developer, Killing Day puts you in the shoes of an unnamed gunman who seems to be straight from a John Woo flick. But it isnt Chow-Yun Fat and this isnt Stranglehold. Killing Day is first-person, baby! In the brief gameplay videos and impressions up on the internet, this title looks to take advantage of all the glorious technology available on newest wave of consoles.

In the demo, you started at double-fisting two hand cannons while your enemies were equipped with bullet-spitting machine guns. Not exactly a recipe for success, but our protagonist had some tricks up his sleeves. After taking cover behind a statue of Atlas, the ill-fated being on the cover of that Ayn Rand novel, it was chewed to giblets by foes shooting from the walkway above. The particle effects in this part of the video were extremely impressive and it looks as if though the entire statue may be able to be destroyed.

However, our main man moved on before this happened. After sending several ineffectual shots at the enemies above, he decided to bring the roof down, literally. Running under the bridge on which the gunners were standing, he sent several rounds through the glass floor, sending them plummeting to their deaths. Its also hard to mention this demo without bringing up the lighting effects. They are, simply put, stunning. Next-gen light looks truly glorious coming through next-gen pane glass windows.

Some problems did rear their head while watching this video. For one, the gameplay, while fast and intense, doesnt look to offer anything new. While destructible environments are nice, innovation is almost always a good thing. But, who knows? At this point, it may simply be vanilla. Another problem is that the hands and guns of the hero looked a little funky. Theres still plenty of time to fix this, however, so it probably wont be a problem.

Killing Day is looking to offer all the fun of Black with a next-gen gloss slapped on to make everything go down smoother. There were minor problems in the demo, but with a 2007 release date there is plenty of time for these to be ironed out.